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Jed Mercurio
Writing Drama For Television
Ever wanted to create your own TV series?
Learn how, from the award-winning creator of Bodyguard and Line of Duty.
The Course
For anyone who wants to write great TV, online series or films. Jed takes you from ideas to final script to getting it made. Notebook, pen, and a love for TV recommended.
Your Maestro
Jed Mercurio is one of Britain’s most successful television writers. The award-winning creator of Bodyguard and Line of Duty will show you how to master mystery, jeopardy, and structure to create edge-of-your-seat drama.
Lessons
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15 mins
Begin your journey into television writing and discover your value as a new writer.
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6 mins
Where do you find ideas for your own television series? Jed will show you.
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16 mins
How to take your inspiration and turn it into a premise for a TV series.
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13 mins
Learn about the different types of series, and what every long-running TV show must have.
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9 mins
How to create successful settings and invigorate well-trodden paths.
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15 mins
How characters affect the world you’ve built. Recognising, using and twisting TV tropes.
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13 mins
Discover different ways to bring the audience into your world.
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24 mins
How to pitch, plan and create an incredible outline for your own television pilot.
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17 mins
Using structure and ambition to develop a more dynamic television series.
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15 mins
Conceiving events that have a profound effect on your characters and story.
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19 mins
Critical mass and chain reaction - how to construct explosive moments and the natural story that follows.
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15 mins
Creating impact, raising the stakes, and leaving your audience wanting more.
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13 mins
How to stop backstory and flashbacks damaging your story.
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10 mins
Creating and connecting evocative story strands.
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23 mins
Exciting and diverse episodes, shocking your audience, and avoiding the mid-season dip.
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15 mins
What is a series bible? What fundamental questions should it answer?
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12 mins
Shaping key moments in your series and showcasing your characters.
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10 mins
Mystery - how to keep viewers guessing and invested.
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10 mins
Jeopardy - keeping your audience on the edge of their seats.
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12 mins
Forward Momentum - powerful ways to keep your story moving.
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23 mins
Why Jed believes, against popular opinion, that dialogue is the least important element in your script.
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13 mins
Confusion - avoiding incoherence and the loss of your audience.
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14 mins
Implausibility - coincidence, Deus ex Machina, and making events unpredictable yet plausible.
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7 mins
Boredom - how to stop your…yawn… audience from getting bored.
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13 mins
The qualities you need to be a successful television writer.
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17 mins
In television there are three main fallacies. Here’s how to prove them wrong.
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9 mins
Jed demystifies the challenges professional writers face during production.
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11 mins
Simple ways to break into the television industry.
Course notes
113 pages
A downloadable PDF full of further insight, scripts, and exercises for each lesson, to help you put theory into practice.
What People are Saying
Everything was so clear and easy to understand.
- Anon
Very comprehensive covering everything from thinking about ideas for scripts through to how to develop a career as a scriptwriter.
- Liz Marley
Engaging throughout, informative, worthwhile.
- Anon
Comprehensive. Engaging. Clear.
- Tom Lincoln
I liked the quality and amount of video content, and a teacher that made everything clear.
- Sarah Crockford
Very informative, clearly understands the subject & shared his experiences, lots of pointers & the pitfalls to watch out for.
- Terry May
His clarity of thought, black, white, very little grey, even if there were ideas I didn't agree with I enjoyed mine being challenged.
- Anon
Jed's insight is fascinating.
- Anon
Jed's use of analogies that uses his previous careers to highlight the writer's control of plot. Very helpful in developing my series bible and first pilot episode script.
- Neil T Humphries
Gotta say the @jedmercurio class online is the best £80 I've ever spent! Recommended.
- A.A. Dhand
I bought his course for myself and I'm gonna agree it's the best £80 I've ever spent, and off the back of this course I've managed to write my first pilot script from scratch thank you Jed.
- Becky
Just started this course and loving it! Thank you #jedmercurio
- Sylvie
@jedmercurio have absolutely LOVED your @bbcmaestro course. It will, no doubt, be something I return to regularly. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.
- Melissa
Jed Mercurio was a great tutor. He was extremely clear and honest, giving us the benefit of his own very wide experience in a concise way, often with clear examples. He covered all aspects of screenwriting combined with answering all of the questions that prospective screenwriters need to know. It was brilliant!
- Heather Dunmore
Common Questions
BBC Maestro is a platform to learn and be inspired through courses taught by experts in their craft. We've curated top talents in a number of different fields, who deliver video courses to teach you everything you need to know to follow in their aspirational footsteps.
For now BBC Maestro is only available in the United Kingdom, but will be made available in more territories in the near future.
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